Guess What's Going Up Here?

Yup.

A 58 storey....uhhhhh....condo.

Now this building does have some historical significance.

It was Frogley's Bakery.  Built in 1885.

A young George Westin actually found employment at CJ Frogley's first bakery on Yonge St.  Just down the road from, this, his third location.

And it will be kicking out the venerable Cookbook Store.  Which has been here for over 30 years.

And here is a sneak peak at what will be replacing it.

Lovely.

 And will just fit nicely in one of the remaining areas of blue sky in the area.

The reason I am mentioning this, is that it will just block nicely my last remaining slice of direct sunlight.

View from our courtyard.

View from my dining room.

Won't have to worry about that annoying sun shining in here for much longer.

Rarer Than Haley's Comet?

Less frequent than a Blue Moon?

What the heck am I talking about?

There.  Does that make it clearer?

No?

Okay, this is the only time in the recorded history of all mankind, that it is the first of November, and......

The Leafs are in first place.......

The Argos are in first place and.......

And the Raptors are tied for first place!

There is a rift in the time-space continuum and I'm buying a Lotto ticket!

She Should Move To Canada

This federal civil servant was on a business trip (what kind of business....?) when she met some guy and went back to her room for some bunga bunga.

Lamp fell, hit her on the head.  So she went after workman's comp.

The insurance company said, Uhhhh no, we don't think so.  The insurance company's administrative tribunal agreed that her injuries were not suffered in the course of her employment, So....no.

She then took them to court. 

But......the lower court agreed with her!  That having sex was certainly in the course of her employment with the government. (Maybe the UC needs to go back to work.  For the Australian government, eh mate?)

The insurance company then appealed to a higher court.  They said - in effect -you betcha that's part of the job.  Boing, boing.   Get the job application out!

The insurance company then appealed to the Aussie's highest court.

And finally, common sense prevailed.  The court said  "the woman’s employer did not induce or encourage her to participate in the sex."  So.....no soup for you.

So this has taken six years to get through the courts.  And to top it all off, the whole time she's been off work on disability.  For depression.

Why is she depressed?  I don't know.  Maybe her husband read about the case in the paper?

But I do know that with our courts, she'd be at right home here in Canada.   No one's guilty of anything here.

This Is Not A Test

This is a real Argo game.

This is not before the game.

This is not after the game.

This was in the middle of the game.

And this was a game to lock up home field advantage throughout the playoffs.

So this was not a test.  And although it wasn't a real emergency (even though it looks like the fire alarm had been pulled) it should be seen as an emergency to the owners of the Argos.

This sad saga will come to a head, luckily, one way or another, in 2017, when their lease runs out at Skydome and they have to move, as the Blue Jays are finally installing real grass.

Where they will move....is a another whole issue.

Stay tuned.

Or not.  No one else seems to care, so why should you......

Whew!

Doing some tiding up on my email account yesterday.

Been getting quite a few emails lately, so worried that I may be running out of storage space.

Good.......

Can still squeeze in 54 million more.

But ease up anyway, please.

Very Clever, Crown & Dragon, Very Clever...

In the Nanny State capital of the world, Ontario, apparently you are not allowed to advertize Happy Hour, as this would encourage.....drinking!

(This from the province that nets a billion dollars a year selling booze through their own booze monopoly.)

So a local watering hole promotes a healthy alternative; 'Appy Hour, with half price appetizers. I support it! And often!

Oh and some dirt cheap beer prices.  (Dirt cheap, of course, from an Ontario perspective.  Still over priced beer from any where else in the world's perspective.)

And I notice this is valid from only from Monday to Sunday.

Hmmmmm........sounds like a lawyer must be involved there somewhere;  "Don't say, 'every day'.  That would encourage.....eating."

And a plug for my local - best wings in town!

Hey! The TTC Chair Reads My Blog

Good for her.

I guess it just took her a little while to read all my blog posts.

Because a while back, I posted  (see Wrong Message, Karen for a refresher) that the TTC Chair, Karen Stintz, by fighting a traffic ticket for riding through a stop sign was sending the wrong message to cyclists.

Cyclists (not all, but a lot) get a bit sanctimonious when preaching to drivers about obeying traffic rules, but cut themselves a lot of slack for the same infractions.

So the UC is pleased to provide a public service as the voice of reason to some of our city's pols.


On a somewhat related topic, when I was spell checking this entry (and when a blog is held to the absolute highest standards of integrity by both its readers, this is a must) I can understand it wouldn't have "Stintz" or "TTC" in its dictionary (the yellowed words).

But you would think a dictionary for a blog would recognize the word.......blog......


*****
Post Script;  in today's (Oct 24^th) Toronto Star, someone else commenting on the same issue.  See Lawbreaking Cyclists Putting Everyone In Danger .  Cool.  Just how many people are reading my blog anyway....?

What Is This - Yonge St?

But not one arrow pointing my way.

But I thought there used to be one.

Maybe someone removed it.

Yeah, here's an earlier picture.

Who could have done that?

[Ed note: A lot of work for one cheesy picture.]

How do you know how much work it was?

Hold Your Horses

Although the US mainstream media are blasting the Tea Partiers for the latest American fiscal crisis, there is lots and lots of blame to go around.

The Tea Partiers do deserve a chunk of the blame, but the US has a much bigger problem beyond them.

They have a massive spending problem  (which is really what the Tea Partiers are railing against).

And to demonstrate that, this graph shows US Federal spending (red line) compared to "Population + Inflation" growth (blue line).  Both start with an Index = 100 in 1980.

Wow!  Anybody think this is sustainable?  You cannot raise taxes enough to continue to fund this.

This link US Fiscal Cliff - Some Perspective is a post from late last year outlining the US problem, but not not much has changed.  In fact, their situation has only gotten worse.

And, of course, like last time, I can't resist a little editorializing.......

Whew.......Retired Guys Have Still Got It!

I was afraid that as I got older my success rate with women would get even worse.

Don't have to worry about it.........

Oops....wrong pic......

 Now we're talking.........

It's Worth the Drive To.....Buffalo

Say no more.........

Let The Bells Ring Out!

Some places just really know how to do up a Grand Opening.

Doubt if I'll be able to get in.

But why do we like to do it.....up?  What's "up" got to do with it?

The stock market can go up - or down.    And the sun comes up.  That's good.

But when your time is up, that's not good.

No wonder it's hard to learn English.

It's easy to mess it up.

Well, about time to wrap this up.  [Ed note: And that's good.]

Three Cheers For Airbrushing!

They need to invent something so you can have an airbrush look just walking around.  A 3D screen or something.

Come on, Apple, get on it!

I've Seen Pubic Hair, Man

To those of you of a certain age, you know what I'm talking about, man.

To those of you who don't, check out I've Seen Pubic Hair Man for a piece of real Canadiana.

As seen at Friday's Agro game. Didn't know those boys were from Steeltown.

Of course,  MacLean & MacLean, brothers Gary & Blair, weren't.  They were from Nova Scotia.

Unfortunately, Gary died in 2001 and Blair in 2008.

Okay, I Lied.......

Just a couple of more graphs.

So take your time with these.  Grab a coffee - or something stronger if you are a Canuck.  Or a Russian, apparently - and muse on these.....

Booze Consumption Around The World

We Canadians don't have to hide our light under a bushel basket to anyone.

Well, unless that anyone is from Russia.  Or the Ukraine.  Or Latvia.  Or Estonia. Or Belarus.

Okay, or Australia.  Or Kazakhstan.  Or France. Or Argentina.  Or Nigeria. Or Germany.  Or Spain.  Or Italy.

Holy crap, when you really look at this, what a bunch of pikers we are.

But we kick the ass of those Mongolians, I tell ya!

Booze Consumption By Booze Type

But nothing wrong with the old amber nectar, eh?

Unless you want to move up in the consumption rankings.

You'll get full before you get hammered.  Those clever Ruskies......



"The Way We Were...."

Pangaea was a super continent that existed during the late Palezoic and early Mesozoic periods, forming about 300 million years ago.

It began to break up about 200 million years ago.  With one ocean all around it.

Somebody has painstakingly recreated where each modern day country would have been.

Who knew that you could have seen Morocco from the Halifax harbour......


Earthquakes Since 1898

Pretty, but deadly.

Glad I live in boring old Central Canada.

Which, of course, was pretty close to Central Africa not that long ago.

Gotta Love The U S of A

Highest paid public servants in the US.

Unlike Canada, where ever box would say "Teacher" (sorry, Rob), it is a little different south of the border.

That is amazing.  Enough to make you spit out your  _____________ (add your drink here from 2nd graph based on nationality).

Okay, Last Graphs....

......even I'm getting tired of them.


Countries England Has Not Invaded

No, the countries in white.

There are only 22.

For being seen as generally laid back and jolly good fellows, they were certainly a bunch of busy little beavers over their history.


Size of the Moon - Put In Perspective

It's not that big, huh?


Worldwide Water Risk

Water risk?  What does water risk mean?


Well, this takes into account three components;

1. Quantity, 
2. Quality and 
3. Regulatory Compliance

The lighter the better.

Once again, we're looking pretty good.


Lightning Strikes

Looks like Canada has dodged the bullet once again.

We're over there, on the right.......


And finally, if all this is putting you to sleep, well it shouldn't.....

Coffee Consumption

 

The darker the better.  At least that's what Tim Horton's would like you to believe.

So us Knuckleheads should be wide awake!

And no wonder Sven and Gunilla are having so much sex.  They can't sleep.  They drink more coffee than we do!  The horror.......

One...Hundred...Billion!

Okay, only seven billion, but this is an interesting chart.

At least I think so, and that's all that counts.

So this view divides the world into seven continents, with each "continent" having one.....billion.....people.

Lotta folks in one small part of the world, eh?

Another cool view.

Not Too Shabby....

Today's lesson is about the evils of that boogeyman, "Unequal Income Distribution."


But in spite about all the talk these days about income inequality, on this map, Canada comes off looking pretty good.

This is a map that represents the distribution of income within a country, using the GINI Index.

A Gini coefficient of zero expresses perfect equality, where all values are the same (for example, where everyone has an exactly equal income).

A Gini coefficient of one expresses maximal inequality among values (for example where only one person has all the income).

So apart from Sven and Gunilla again (and all of Scandinavia), Canada has some of the lowest income inequality in the world.



[Source: The World Factbook 2009]

I'm Glad I'm Not A Politician

Canada's almost half a billion dollar "Human Rights Museum" is set to open next year.  Its objective essentially was to be a unifying force in Canada, trying to create a sense of Canadian identity and national unity.

But, according to the National Post, it has been anything but:

• Ukrainian-Canadians object that their exhibit is in a back gallery on the way to the washrooms.
• Armenian-Canadians fear museum visitors will be suffering genocide-overload by the time they encounter the display explaining their people’s slaughter.
• A prominent Jewish organization is miffed that the museum’s Holocaust gallery will not discuss the creation of Israel.
• Palestinian-Canadians feel completely ignored.
• Aboriginal leaders are angry that the treatment of Canada’s first people is not described as genocide.

Oiy vay.

Not to make too light of the terrible suffering all of these peoples, but really, what did we expect?

If we truly were striving for national unity, we could have saved the half billion dollars and built a hockey arena.

Oh yeah?  In which city?  Why hockey?  Why not rhythmic gymnastics? Why can't we just end poverty!

Oiy vay.

Hit A Nerve

Due to underwhelming popular demand, here is Part Deux of the series "Other People Having Sex"


The Ruskies Are Having Lots Of Sex

But Apparently, Not Enjoying It

I Guess Really Not Enjoying It

So it really is quality, not quantity......

I certainly hope that applies to other.....uhhh.....things.....